NewsCO.com.au – Trump endorses guns for teachers to stop shootings

US President Donald Trump has said arming teachers could prevent school shootings like that which left 17 people dead last week in Florida.

A staff member with a gun could end an attack “very quickly”, he said.

Mr Trump floated the proposal as emotional survivors of the 14 February massacre implored him to make sure it never happens again.

The Republican president also backed calls for improved background checks for gun buyers.

Other survivors meanwhile lobbied Florida lawmakers on gun control.

“We’ll be very strong on background checks, very strong emphasis on the mental health of somebody,” Mr Trump told the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School during Wednesday’s televised event at the White House.

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President Trump holds his notes at the listening session. Point five says: “I hear you”

“It’s not going to be talk like it’s been in the past,” he added. “It’s been going on too long, too many instances, we’re going to get it done.”

The US president also endorsed a proposal that has long been backed by the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful gun lobby group.

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He pledged to look “very strongly” at calls for educators to be armed with guns.

“If you had a teacher who was adept at firearms,” he said, “they could very well end the attack very quickly.”

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“Where a teacher would have a concealed gun on them,” he said, while acknowledging the plan was controversial, “they would go for special training and they would be there, and you would no longer have a gun-free zone.

“A gun-free zone, to a maniac, because they are all cowards, a gun-free zone is, ‘let’s go in and let’s attack.'”

‘I’m pissed!’

Mr Trump listened to pleas for change from about 40 students, teachers and families during the session in the executive mansion’s state dining room.

Andrew Pollack, whose daughter, Meadow, died in the Parkland attack – the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school – vented his anger.

“We’re here because my daughter has no voice,” said Mr Pollack.

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“She was murdered last week and she was taken from us – shot nine times on the third floor. We, as a country, failed our children.”

“I’m pissed!” he added.

Hundreds of teenagers from the Washington DC suburbs rallied outside the White House before Mr Trump’s meeting.

Meanwhile, survivors of the shooting poured into the Florida state capital to demand lawmakers restrict sales of assault rifles.